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eF^ci/^oi^ o&aocm^ 



LORD VERULAM. 

,2/ 



BY OFW 

MRS. C F. ASHMEAD WINDLE 

1882. 



>*-. 







Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1882, by 

CATHABINE F. ASHMEAD WLNDLE, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 






Report to the British Museum 



ON BEHALF OF THE 



ANNALS OF GREAT BRITAIN 



AND 



THE REIGN OF HER MAJESTY, QUEEN VICTORIA, 



DISCOVERY AND OPENING OF 

THE CIPHER 



-OF— 



FRANCIS BACON, LORD VERULAM, 
ALIKE IN HIS PROSE WRITINGS AND IN THE 

SHAKESPEARE" DRAMAS. 

PROVINd HIM THE AUTHOR OF THE DRAMAS. 



« 



BY Mrs. C. F. ASHMEAD WINDLE. 



[Letters Patent of England to be Procured.] 



SAN FKANCISCO. 

JOS. WlNTERBURN & Co., " 5oOK AND JoB PRINTERS AND ElECTROTYPERS. 

1882. 









XT 



" Corrigere, res est tanto magis ardua quanto Magnus Aristarc/io, major 
Homer is erat." 

(Cok: are rich here: res asked to A. and to O.; match his heart, you A.; 
cue you want, O. Minus A.; rest ark O. ; match our Homo his heart.) 

Letter from Roger Mainwaring to Dr. Rawley. 



/ 



San Francisco, California, March, 1882. 

To the Trustees of the British Museum, 

on behalf of the Annals of Great Britain, 

and the Reign of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria: 

Gentlemen — It is mine — on behalf of the Annals of Great 
Britain, and of the pride of the reign of Her Majesty, Queen Vic- 
toria, as well as of the glory of this new era which it marks for all 
nations, and for the whole civilized world — herewith most respectfully 
to tender to you, as the guardians of the British special archives, the 
Report of my Discovery and Opening of a Cipher in the Works of your 
hitherto egregiously misconceived, but still highly illustrious countryman, 
Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam. 

I have found that this Cipher was employed by Lord Verulam for the 
purpose of his identification ultimately with the supernal Volume of 
Dramas, which it was the whole object of his being, during the last 
twenty or more years of his life, to perfect and transmit as his testi- 
monial and memorial to all time — that " Ariel" — as in the Cipher he 
has designated- its title — which now, in the fulness of to-day. springs 
on golden wings from the encrusting chrysalis of the mask of " Shake- 
speare," and mounts toward its infinite empyrean. There is not so 
much as a single line of all Bacon s prose works, as he has with omniscient 
security and provision transmitted them, without, as it now appears , its 
definite design of a final conjoinder with this great resurrection, and its 
assigned part in the fulfillment and proof of the predestined miracle. 

Thus much having been necessary by the way of introduction , 
permit me, without further preliminary, to lay bare to you this astound- 
ing discovery, according to its logical development. 

In the De Augmentis Scientiarum of Lord Verulam; there is a pas- 
sage on " Ciphers." It is introduced, as it were, merely incidentally, 
as related to the subject of writing, but its real design is to convey a 
covert hint toward this discovery. I shall quote from it below so much 
as is requisite for my exposition, italicising those parts which are signi- 
ficant to the purpose : 



"Writing is practiced either by means of the common alphabet, now vul- 
garly received, or of a secret and private one, agreed upon betwixt particular 
persons, and called by the name of Cipher. . But here arises a question about the 
orthography, viz : whether words should be wrote as they are pronounced, or 
after the common manner. Certainly that reformed kind of writing, according 
to the pronunciation, is but a useless speculation, because pronunciation itself is 
continually changing, and the derivations of words, especially from the foreign 
languages, are very obscure: and lastly, as writing in the received manner no way 
obstructs the pronunciation but leavesit free, an innovation in it is to no purpose." 

In the lines I have italicized above, we have dexterously and un- 
suspiciously interwoven the disclosure of Bacon's Cipher, the whole sub- 
ject having been introduced simply for this purpose. He continues, 
designating technically various sorts of Ciphers, and explains that the 
chief point in the selection of a Cipher, is that it should be free from 
suspicion; and goes on thus: 

" But to prevent all suspicion, we shall annex a Cipher of our own which 
has the highest perfection of a Cipher — that of signifying omnia per omnia." 

These italicized lines also describe the nature of Bacoris own Cipher, 
but he proceeds to apply them to a contracted bilateral alphabet, quite 
inadequate to the claim, and consisting of the two letters A and B, 
changed through five places, so as to represent all the letters of the 
alphabet. The description is adroit, so as to defy the ordinary detec- 
tion of any real design, but it is intended, in reality, for a hint to give 
a peculiar significancy to those particular letters. Next, he introduces 
another sort of Cipher, designed also to assist this discovery, but as I 
can sufficiently elucidate my exposition without it, I will not need to 
enter into the somewhat tedious explanation it would involve, and 
therefore exclude it, as merely cumulative. 

On the subject of the Cipher, Bacon continues: 

"The doctrine of Ciphers has introduced another relative to it, viz : the art 
of deciphering without the use of the alphabet of the Cipher, or knowing the rules 
whereby it is formed. This is indeed a work of labour and ingenuity, devoted, 
as well as the former, to the secret service of princes. Yet, by a diligent pre- 
caution, it may be rendered useless, though as matters now stand, it is highly 
serviceable : for if the Ciphers in use were good and trusty, several of them 
would absolutely elude the labour of the decipherer, and yet remain commodious 
enough to be wrote and read.'" 

The lines italicized in the foregoing convey the all-important in- 
formation that our author's Cipher may be discovered " without the 
alphabet of the Cipher, or knowing the rules whereby it was formed." 
The concluding sentence is one of those rich and masterly specimens 
abounding throughout certain others of Lord Verulam's prose works, of 
the fine art of obscurity, to which he had cultivated his pen in the choice 
of language, and in the use of antithetical words and clauses, at once 
for the preservation and the suggestion of his sublime secret, according 
to the non-perception or the apperception of his readers. For the lat- 
ter it evidently conveys the fact oia Cipher in his writings'' commodious 
enough to be wrote and read." 



He concludes: 

" For in regard of the razuness and unskilfulness of the hands through which 
they pass, the greatest matters arc sometimes carried oti in the weakest ciphers. In 
the enumeratien of these private and retired arts, it may be thought I seek to 
make a great muster-roll of sciences, naming them for show and ostentation, but 
to little other purpose. But, let them which are skilful in them judge, whether I 
bring them in only for appearance, orzvheiher, in that which I speak of them, though 
in fezv words, there be not some seed of proficience. And this must be remem- 
bered, that, as there be many of great account in their countries and provinces, 
which, when they come up to the seat of the estate, are but of mean rank, and 
scarcely regarded ; so these arts, being here placed with the principal and su- 
preme sciences, seem petty things, but to such as have chosen them to spend 
their labours and studies in them, they seem great matters.'''' 

The discerning reader may readily gather from the above that the 
Cipher employed by Bacon might be easily deciphered, provided the 
reader were not " raw and unskilful," and further, that in writing of 
ciphers, he " did not bring them in only for appearance," but had put 
into them ''some seed" of his "proficience," and having "chosen 
them, to spend his labors and studies in them," they were to him 
" great matters." 

Thus far, then, we have learned that Bacon had employed a Cipher 
of his own, having " the highest perfection of a Cipher — that of signify- 
ing omnia per omnia, commodious enough to be wrote and read, and 
which might be deciphered without knowing the rules by which it was 
formed." Nay, more, we are indeed initiated into it, since he has 
disclosed the principle on which it is founded at the very outset of the 
subject: " As writing in the received manner no way obstructs the man- 
ner of pronunciation, but leaves that free, an innovation in it is of no pur- 
pose." 

We have, also, under the professed explanation of a Cipher in a 
bilateral alphabet, had presented to us two significant letters, A and B. 

We are to bear these facts with us to the perusal of the next chap- 
ter, treating of rhetoric and style, in which Antithesis is considered. 
The especial advantages of that mode of writing having been praised 
in an eloquent and unsuspicious sentence or two, the author annexes 
four instances of this style, taken, as he states, from Demosthenes and 
Cicero, and therefore, as he fears, he tells us, likely to be considered 
rather trite and hackneyed. He has given each of them a caption, and 
as copied from the De Augmentis Scienliarum they are as follows : 

"A Conclusion on the True Deliberative. 

" See the past fault be at once amended, and future inconvenience at once 
prevented. 

" Corollary on an exact Division. 

" That all may see I would conceal nothing by silence; nor cloud anything 
by words. 

"A Transition with a Caveat. 

"But let us leave this subject for the present, reserving to ourselves the lib- 
erty of a retrospection. 



6 

• ' A prepossession against an Inveterate Opinion. 

" I will let you understand to the full what spring from the thing itself, 
what error has tacked to it, and what envy has raised upon it." 

Those sentences are in the Verulamian Cipher. As fitted to that, they 
are a singular instance of suitable selection. But as adapted to their 
other previous design, that of inciting curiosity and so inviting to the 
penetration of the Cipher, they are chosen with the most consummate 
art. For while on the outside face they express frankness, they to the 
discerner suggest something hidden, and solicit the application of the 
Cipher, of which we have just received intimation. I have therefore 
readily deciphered them thus: 

"A Conclusion on the True Deliberative." 
A. conclude you on the true ; deliver A, to live. 

"So the past fault may be at once amended, and future inconvenience pre- 
vented." 

So the past fall to me be at once, I'm ended ; in future, incog. ; veni 
hence pro vent it. 

"Corollary on an Exact Division." 
Carol Ariel ; annex art to D.; visi on. 

"That all may see I would conceal nothing by silence; nor cloud anything 
by words." 

That all men say I would conceal; noting by seal hence; nor collude on 
ye then by wards . 

"A Transition, with a Caveat." 
A. trans. I to ye on, with a caveat. 

" But let us leave this subject for the present, reserving to ourselves the lib- 
erty of a retrospection." 

But let us lay this ; subdue it for the person ; re saving to our shelves 
the liber to ye of a re to respect you on. 

"A Prepossession against an Inveterate Opinion." 
I prepossess you on A. ; gain is't, and invite her A lo'l.- open you on. 

" I will let you understand to the full what spring from the thing itself; what 
error has tacked to it, and what envy has raised upon it." 

/ will let you, under his to hand, truthful, what he's /' bring from 
the thing itself, what arrear has attached to it, and ivhat en vie has 
raised upon it. 

Here, then, we have deciphered the declaration of an assumed in- 
cognito, as a deliberate conclusion on the true; of transfer, and subdu- 
ing of the person; we have the name "Ariel" and the word "liber" 
as explanatory of the cabalistic "A." and " B." of the intruded bilat- 
eral cipher, and the declaration of a caveat and a prepository title to 



A. or "Ariel." Demosthenes and Cicero are also words in cipher. 
Being unfolded, they read thus — Demosthenes.- D. most in us; Cicero : 
see Sir 0. In the former we are directly referred to the Bible in con- 
nection with " liber" as the most divine of books, next to itself, while 
in the latter' we are referred, as for this other divine book, to an ex- 
pression in the play of the Merchant of Venice, contained in the so- 
called Shakespearean volume: " I am Sir Oracle." 

Thus we have connected these dramas with this Verulamian cipher; 
and, as immediately on opening the editions that have not been tam- 
pered with as to the original order of the plays, we are confronted with 
the name " Ariel," we at the same time recognize the allusion to the 
Bible as a reference to that part of the Holy Scriptures from which it 
is borrowed. It is found in the 29th chapter of Isaiah. The whole 
chapter is designed to be applied in this opening of the cipher, but I 
shall quote only those verses which are the most startling: 

" Woe to Arid, to Ariel, the city ivherc David dw fit; add ye year to year ; let 
them kill sacrifices. 

" Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness* and sorrow; and it 
shall be unto me as Ariel. 

' ' And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay seige aqainst thee 
with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. 

'* And thou shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and thy 
speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a 
familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. 

' ' For thf Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath 
closed your eyes ; the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. 

" And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of A BOOK THAT IS 
sealed, which men delivered to ONE THAT is learned, saying, Read this, I pray 
thee: and he saith, /can not, for it is sealed. 

" And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, 
I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. 

■**•***■**#.* # * 

" v Therefore, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a 
marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and 
the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 

1 ' Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their •counsel from the Lord, and their 
works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us ? 

" Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's 
clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not t or shall the 
thing framed say of him that fratned it, He had no understanding.'" 

' ' Is it not a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, 
and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest ? 

" And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the BOOK, and the eyes of 
the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. 

" The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men 
shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 
* * * * * ~ * * * * ' * 

" They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that 
murmured shall learn doctrine.'''' 



8 



The word " Ariel," in this chapter, is explained as " the city where 
David dwelt;" that is to say, as the seat of song, and therefore evidently, 
in being borrowed and used by the great dramatist in his initial play 
of The Tempest, it is intended for the title of his great volume.* It 
is meant to' imply the delicate poetical imagination, which, woven into 
the spells of dramatic art, was by him, as a providence, carefully 
launched under concealment, and committed to the tempest of time 
(time is) with confidence that it would thus ultimately weather the 
storms of adversity, and attain the port of Verulam, bringing his long 
indefinite, but still always assured day of The Great Installation 
(Instauration in the Cipher). 

Thus, gentlemen, I have opened a Verulamian Cipher in the 
acknowledged works of Francis Bacon, absolutely connecting him with 
the " Shakespeare" dramas, as having relinquished his title in them, 
with " a caveat," and still holding a claim of prepossession on them. 

I shall now proceed to open the same Cipher in these dramas, ab- 
solutely disclosing Lord Verulam as their author, and tossing the arti- 
ficial Shakespeare to the winds of his ridicule. It is a Cipher, which 
in them, as I need not say to you, has heretofore eluded the research 
of two hundred and fifty years, under the study of diligent investigators, 
and which has totally escaped the notice of the most diverse and vo- 
luminous commentators. Nevertheless, as patiently and passively as 
the sleeping princess of the legend awaited the arrival of the true knight 
destined to awake her with his kiss, so has it lain ready to respond to 
the mutual touch. And, even as by "the magic music in his heart" 
it was, that true knight snapped the spell, aroused the lady fair, and 
with her the slumbering retinue of the enchanted palace, that 

" All the long-pent stream of life 
Dashed downward in a cataract," 

so do I, by the same power, stir the cabala of this long stilled volume, 
flutter its gentle " Ariel" to start the warders, plume his own pinions, 
and warble his native notes, that echo take up the strain, and reverbe- 
rate the miracle of Verulam through " the flutes and trumpets" of per- 
petual time. 

It is my design to develop the Cipher of the Dramas carefully on 
the systematic plan devised by the far-seeing author as the requisite ob- 
jective proof for his identification. 

We have brought the epithet " Sir O" over from the Cipher in the 
Be Augmentis, and searching for the allusion in the plays, we find the 



*Note. — In the Cipher of the play of Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2, I find a 
reference to The Tempest, in the casual introduction of the name of Gonzalo, one 
of its characters, and the mention in connection with it of that of Baptista 
(baptized-A. ) purposely to indicate "Ariel " as the title of the book. 



9 

expression in The ^Ter chant of Venice, Act I, Scene I: "I am Sir Or- 
acle." This is indicative that our " oracle" is to be sought in the 
dramas under the alphabetical letter O; giving us the play of Othello as 
the basis of the Cipher. And the author has selected this play for that 
purpose, on account of its initial O in the title, which may represent 
the arithmetical nought, that may be multiplied indefinitely. With the 
play of Othello, therefore, as beginning its title with the letter O, he 
invites us to this revelation; and, truly, it is in his hand the Hegelian 
zero out of which he by degrees evolves the stupendous miracle of a 
strange equation in the dramas — a past non-Being, and a present 
Being of Himself in them. 

Many of these dramas have a personal allegory of the writer's con- 
sciousness hidden in them, to which the allegory of the sonnets is the 
key. This, however, can never be recognized except by the rarest few, 
or, as the author, in alluding to it in The Winter's Tale, says: 

" Not noted, is't 
But of the finer natures; by some severals 
Of head-piece extraordinary. " 

And, therefore, borrowing from Leontes in the same play. I have to 
say of the higher allegorical mode of this revelation : 

' Though I am satisfied and need no more 
Than what I know, yet shall the okacle 
Give rest to the minds of others, such as he 
Whose ignorant credulity will not 
Come up to the truth." 

I respectfully, accordingly, present the opened Cipher in Othello. 






OTHELLO. 



A tale, oh ! I tell, oh ! 
Oh, dell, oh ! What wail, oh ! 
Oh, hill, oh ! What willow !* 
What hell oh ! What will, oh ! 
At will, oh ! At well, oh ! 
I dwell, oh ! 

[I do not assume to give definitely, or to exhaust nearly all the catches 
that may be snatched from the title of this, or any other of the weird and 
wondrous titles of these dramas. They are meant to be snggestive of 
the spirit presence of the author, and they must necessarily be adapted 
to more or fewer changes, according to the measure of the mind and 
ear to which they address themselves. To attempt to limit them, 
either in sound or sense, would be to materialize them, and entirely to 
lose the ideal and supersensuous effect which belongs to them. Each 
reader, when once initiated, will ring his own changes, for such was 
the great author's design. Their scope is confined as earth, or ex- 
pansive as air — as cabined as mere words, or as exalted as the thought 
to which the words are but the base-round of an interminable ladder 
reaching to Heaven, whereon each is invited to step and ascend as far 
as his individual capacity may enable him to conjoin language with that 
infinitude which he can still never begin to express. C. F. A. W.] 

Table of Invention as Key to Othello. 
THE DUKE OF VENICE: Judgments 
MONTANA : The watchword of a Discovery. 

Clues to the Watchword. 
MICHAEL: Referring to Michael de Montaigne. 
A FLORENTINE : Referring to Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays. 

* That this particular catch was designed by the author is proven in Des- 
demona's song of the " Willow." 

t Notes. — " For we form a history, and tables of invention for anger, fear, 
shame and the like, and the mental operations of memory, composition, Judg- 
ment, and the like, as well as for heat and cold, light and vegetation, and the 
like." — Novum Organum. 

" Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain, 
Full charactered with lasting memory." — Sonnet 122. 

" This Tablet lay upon his breast, 
Wherein our pleasure his full fortune doth confine." — Cymbeline. 



11 



ARITHMETICIAN 
See me aright on title 



:j 



BRABANTIO : 



Brabble on't you 



a, Oi[ 



Referring to the chapter on Names in Montaigne's 

Essays. 

The question of Bacon's authorship of the plays, aris- 
ing from tokens in Othello. 



CYPRUS : 

Cypress.* 
Cipher us. 
Sigh for us. 

VENICE : 

Come here. 
Come see. 
Venus. 

IAGO : 
I ago.t 
Ay, ay, go. j 
Ay, I go. J 

DESDEMONA : 
With a demon A.J 
With a moan, ah! 

BIANCA 
Buy on care 
Buy on cure, 

CASSIO: 
Case you, oh! 
Cause you, oh! 



Information of a Cipher in the dramas, with appeal to unfold it, 
so as to elicit sympathy on the disclosure . 



The word Venice may recall the author's early poem, " The Venus 
and Adonis." 



Bacon wills to let "go" his poetical reputation, that through 
thus following the eternal Divine Will,t it shall go down to 
posterity. 



The double tragedy of Bacon's Muse. 



:f 



Bifold modes of Bacon's Muse. 

Cause of Bacon's casing himself, or concealing his authorship 
of the plays, which will prove by the clue to be found in 
this play, to have been the cause of his country — a sac- 
rifice after the manner of some instances cited by Michael 
de Montaigne. 



Bacon the Viceroy of a lode of ore, suppressed by a vica- 
rious load of sorrow. 



Greatness and grace accumulating to Bacon from the 
course he wills to pursue. 



LODOVICO : | 

Vice o' lode, oh! r 
Vicarious load, oh! ) 

GRATIANO : 

Great you on, oh! 
Grace you on, oh ! 

EMILIA : ) The expression of Bacon's ill % continued in play after play, as 
mile -stones of his life. 

Road toward death to present fame in the plays, for the 
sake of the future ; in short, Bacon's road toward the 
destiny of his choice. 



) 

Ira ill, you. r 
I mile you. ) 

RODERIGO: 
Road where I go 



.1 



* Motes. — "And keep Invention in a noted weed. (Cypress is the sym- 
bol of grief, as we say "widow's weeds," and the pun, of which the author's 
Cipher is formed, was a rank "weed " in Bacon's day.) That every word doth 
almost tell my name, showing their birth (derivation), and where they did pro- 
ceed (analogy and reference)." — Sonnet 76. 

"I have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men." 

Prayer found among Bacon's Papers. 
t See Sonnets 134, 135, 136, 142. 

t See Old Testament, Book of Daniel, Chap. VII, Ancient of days. 

% Note. — This refers to the Moor Aaron, in Titus Andronicus, and is 
shortly explained. 

Erratum. Omitted from the above Table of Invention: 



OTHELLO: 

Hot hell, oh! 
Oh, tell, oh! 



The anguish of Bacon's sacrifice, as told in the tragic dramas. 



12 

Related Clues. 

WILL : Referring to the autograph of William Shakespeare in the transmitted 
copy of Florio's Montaigne. 

THE MOOR : Referring to the Titus Andronkus. 

MARCUS LUCICOS : Referring to the Titus Andronkus. 

ANGELO : Referring to Measure for Measure and Comedy of Errors. 

TURKS: Referring to Ciphers in the Merchant of Venice. 

OTTOMITES : Referring to Ciphers in the Merchant of Venice. 

ALEPPO : \ Referring to the Merchant of Venice. 
A lip, O. f 

In putting the names of the dramatis persona into the Cipher (its 
mode being already learned from the De Augments), where there is 
still any uncertainty left as to the absolute symbol, we can assure our- 
selves by noticing the language of what is spoken in the dialogue by 
the character of which we are doubtful. 

At the opening of this play we are immediately introduced to Cas- 
sio, with the prefix of another name — one not given him on the list of 
dramatis persona, and therefore not in Cipher, but to be noted as im- 
portant; for at once Iago propounds two conundrums concerning him, 
the first as spoken by Othello: 

" Othello. For certes, says he, 

I have already chose my officer." 

And the next as by himself: 

"Iago. Forsooth, a great arithmetician, 

One Michael Cassio. a Florentine. 
A fellow almost damned in a fair wife."* 

This, in connection with the translation of Cassio by the Cipher 
into Case you, oh ! Cause you, oh ! 

" Oth. It is the cause, it is the cause, my .soul — 

Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars. 
It is the cause" 

is set down in our minds for consideration, as we connect it with the 
prefix Michael, while we at the same time recognize a familiarity in 
Michael and Flor, as coming thus in juxtaposition, and feel that the 
full reminiscence will presently come to us, realizing it to be of pecu- 
liar importance in the Cipher. 

Iago lets us know that he also is important here, for he begins to 
give us riddles about himself: 

" Iago. Were I the Moor I would not be Iago, 
In following him, I follow but myself." 

*Note. — This line is in reprehension of that which detracts from the value 
of Montaigne's Essays — the book is spoken of under the figure of a wife. 



13 

And again: 
" Iago. I am not what I am." 

There is, too, an enigma in his title of officer to Othello — " his 
ancient." This is a familiar word; we remember it as used in the 
Bible, look it up in Daniel, the seventh chapter, and learn it means 
the Supreme Authority. Pursuing Iago in the dialogue we soon find 
him discoursing on the will, and get this word as the application of his 
cipher, in its variations, not forgetting among these that Will is the old 
generic name for a poet, and also that it is connected especially with 
William Shakespeare, through certain punning sonnets ascribed to him in 
his day, as well as through a similar punning passage in the play of Much 
Ado About Nothing. 

Brabantio is another to utter riddles. He says: 

" Brab. These sentences, to sugar, or to gall, 

Being strong on both sides, are equivocal." 

Thus we learn that, as a brabbler, he stands for the opened question 
of the true authorship of the dramas. 

Desdemona, as well, proclaims herself a sphinx, under own pro- 
test: 

" Des. I do beguile 

The thing I am by seeming otherwise." 

Othello says, mysteriously : 

" Oth. I must be found, 

My parts, my title, and my perfect soul, 

Shall MANIFEST ME RIGHTLY." 

And again: 
"Oth. Your mystery, your mystery ; nay, dispatch." 

And yet again : 
" Oth. Were it my cue." 

We have, moreover, Cassio with his hand to his mouth, in token 
of secrecy, as spoken by Iago: 

" Iago. It had been better you had not kissed your three fingers so oft. 
Very good, well kissed ! an excellent courtesy : 'tis so, indeed : 
yet again, your fingers to your lips. 1 '' 

And Iago saying, in token of silence: 
" 2 ago. Lay thy finger thus." 

And swearing something double .■ 
"Iago. By Janus!" 

And asking: 
" Iago. How comes this trick?" 



14 

Emilia says, too: 
" Emil. Turn the key." 

So that there is the stirring of mystery and secrecy continually 
suggested in this drama. We also find the following intimation that 
this is the play in which to open the Cipher : 

" We must not think the Turk is so unskillful 
To leave that latest which concerns him first." 

The following: 

" Iago. Here's a goodly watch indeed ! 

Who's that which rings the bell?' 

And this : 

" Mon. Come, let's set the watch," 

explain Montano as a watchword. 

Then presently we have the coupling of the words Michael and 
Montano , with a hint for the memory: 

" Oth. How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot ? 

" Cas. I pray you pardon me, I cannot speak. 

" Oth. Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil : 

What's the matter 
That you unlace your reputation thus, 
And spend your rich opinion for the NAME 
Of a night brawler ?" 

With this the familiar "Michael," which we could nevertheless not 
place at the beginning, comes to us as the prenomen of a writer some- 
how mixed up in our minds with these dramas, namely : as that of Michael 
de Montaigne, so fitting for us the lingual root of .Mw-tano. As we 
are told that Michael Cassio was a Flor-entine, we hereupon immedi- 
ately think of Florid s translation . Then rushes upon us the recollec- 
tion that there is preserved in the British Museum a copy of this edition 
containing, in autograph, the name of William Shakspere. 

Having thus connected the Verulamiam Cipher with that relic, we 
have caught the cue intended in Cipher of this drama. 

Our author lets us know that he had some difficulty in adapting 
Cassio to the Cipher, and at the same time joining the name of Michael 
to him. 

" Oth. What ! Michael Cassio, 

That came a-wooing with you — 

To have so much to do 
To bring him in ! " 



15 

Bacon's design in this adaptation was, through Montaigne's vol- 
ume, to indicate his concealed authorship of the dramas , and his trans- 
ference of the reputation of them to Shakespeare, together with tJie cause ; 
since Montaigne, in writing of titles, and in his chapter on names, 
relates instances of such personal relinquishment of fame, from 
patriotism and other noble motives. 

We accordingly make the startling and momentous discovery that 
the Florio Montaigne containing Shakspere's autograph, and preserved 
in the British Museum, is the unchallengeable clue, arranged by 
Bacon himself over two hundred and fifty years ago, and transmitted with 
sure provision on his part, to connect with this Cipher, as I have here 
opened it, and to reclaim his title in the Dramas ! It was not for such 
an one as he, who could achieve the miracle of their creation, not to 
have pre-ordained another for the attestation of their true and proper 
value to the world — a value never to be conceived apart from him as 
their author, any more than the worth of the universe to man can be 
conceived apart from its infinite Creator; for we might as well attempt 
to explain the astronomy of the Heavens by the geography of the desert 
of Sahara as endeavor to read these plays by the " personality of Shake- 
spere." It was necessary that a book so marvelous should have its cre- 
dentials ere its seals could at all be opened. I do not here mean by 
seals, the Cipher, which is indeed an excrescence merely, superposed 
to direct us to the true author, but its profound analogies and supernat- 
ural idealism. Then, having his name, we realize the supremacy 
which is at once a promise and guarantee of all the glorious contents. 
As we bring to the Bible the name of God, and bow our heads before 
we can expect properly to read it, so must we bring to " Ariel " the 
name of Bacon, inclining reverently, ere we are fitted to appreciate its 
secrets — styling it by this, his designated title, as part of the necessity. 
So important did he feel it to be for any true rendering of the volume, 
that, sooner or later, his name must be linked with it, that he arranged 
| this miracle to accomplish it. 

I find, by the Cipher in The Winter's Tale, that Bacon came into 
1 possession of the Montaigne work during the same month in which he 
began to write the Sonnets, which must have been previously to his 
I writing The Merry Wives of Windsor, as I find also by the Cipher in 
j that play that he possessed it at the time of that drama's com- 
position. It is there called a " Book of Riddles."* I have never 
been informed of the circumstances connected with the coming into the 
British Museum of the Florio copy, nor the date of this occurrence; 
but I have found a letter among Lord Verulam's correspondence, 
which I believe to be his own chronicle, if not of that event itself, at 
any rate of his definite arrangement for it. Regarding it as designed 

* Note. — "Book of Riddles ! Why did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake, 
upon All-hallowmas last, a fortnight before Mic/iaelmas ?" — Merry Wives of 
Windsor. 



16 

by him to fall in at this point of the proof, I shall introduce it, the 
italics being mine, to indicate the point: 

" To Sir Michael Hickes.* 

"I do use. as you know, to pay my debts with time; but indeed, if you will 
have a good and perfect colour in a carnation stocking, it must be long in the dying. 
I have some scruple of conscience whether it was my lady's stocking or her 
daughter's, and I would have the restitutio7i to be in the right person, else I shall 
not have absolution. Therefore, I have seut to them BOTH, desiring them to wear 
them for rfiy sake, t as I did theirs for mine own sake. So, wishing you all a 
good new year, I rest 

" Yours assured. 
" Gray's Inn, this 8th day of Jan., 1611." 

The following note I also believe to relate to the act of committing 
the Florio volume for safe transmission: 

" To his very loving friend, Mr. John Murray, of His Majesty's bed chamber. 
Deliver these: 

"Good Mr. Murray: I have labored like a pack-horse, and I think I have 
driven in a nail. I pray deliver the enclosed to His Majesty, wherein I have 
made mention of the same. Yours assured, 

"27 Jan., 1611. Fr. Bacon." 

The other Ciphers in the names of the characters are readily con- 
firmed by the text. 

The Duke signifies judgment, as is apparent in the following quota- 
tions : 

" Duke. The bloody book of law 

You shall yourself read in the bitter letter, 
After your own sense " 
And this: 

"Duke. Nay, it is possible enough to judgment." 
We find Othello's Cipher likewise confirmed by his speech : 

" Oth. And keep the gates of Hell.'" 
And again: 

" Oth. Ay, there, look grim as Hell." 

Emilia's " ever" and " never," and "here and there;" her '"Tis 
not a year or two;" and " Half a grain a day;" as also her " I shall 
bestow you where you will have lime," indicate the fuller explanation 
of the Cipher in her name as Time. 

*Note. — I have discovered that the addresses of nearly all Bacon's letters 
are in cipher. 

t Note. — This is to say that he has put the Florio Montaigne both in the 
cipher of the plays, and in safe deposit, which is equivalent to asking his country 
to wear them for memorials of him, in like manner as he had, on his part, had a 
pride in bearing her name during his life. 



17 



Desdemona's 



" Des. My mother had a maid called Barbar-A; 

She was in love, and he she loved proved mad, 
And did forsake her; she had a song of ' willow,' 
And she died singing it." 

indicate, in conjunction with her union to the Moor, her Cipher. But 
this will here require this word of anticipatory explanation. In the Ci- 
pher of this play, the Moor is a reference to the tragedy of Titus An- 
dronicus, in which Aaron the Moor is one of the characters. He is 
there represented as a barbarian ; hence the above " Babar-A" 

We have also in this play a reference to the Merchant of Venice, in 
the words: 

" Oth. And say, besides, — that in Aleppo once, 
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk 
Beat a Venetian, and traduced the State, 
I took him by the throat, and smote him thus; " 

"Aleppo," translated from the Cipher, corresponding with the ref- 
erence in the Cipher " Cicero," brought over from the De Aug mentis 
of Bacon, to unite with it here. 

In logical order, the Titus Andronicus follows as the next play to be 
opened. I accordingly present the Cipher of its Dramatis Personse: 



TITUS ANDRONICUS. 



Tie t' us, and drone accuse; 
Tie t' us, and drown a curse; 
Tie t' us, and drum the news. 

Table of Invention as Key to Titus Andronicus. 

TITUS ANDRONICUS : I the custodian of a sleeping title in English poetry. 

MARCUS ANDRONICUS: I the custodian of England's sleeping poetical 

fame. 

SATURNINUS : Roman Mythology in Ovid's Metamorphoses.. 

BASSIANUS : ^ The Venus and Adonis, and Tarquin and Lucrece of Ovid. 
Base ye on us. \ 

LUCIUS : ) Bacon's name in England in the plays. 
Lose you us. ) 



18 



US:) 
5- ) 



QUINTUS : \ Bacon's patriotism. 
Kin to us. 



MARTIUS: | Service. 
March you us. J 

MUTIUS : ) Silence. 



JS. ) 



Mute you us 

PUBLIUS:[ Fame. 
Publish us. f 



LAVINIA: ) The Muse of Bacon. 

Lave in you, 



SEMPRONIUS : Duration. 

u, A. \ 

vEMILIUS: | Time. 
I mile you us. J 

AARON :| The stratagem of duplicity. 
Irony. \ 

TAMORA : [ Barbarous passions. 
To a Moor, ah!) 

ALARBUS :) Alarm. 
Alarm us. f 

DEMETRIUS : [ But one side of the early poems. 
Half try us. \ 

CHIRON : | Irony of the early poems in their exterior impropriety. 

Gesture in irony, j 

Clue to the allegory of this play, Ovid's " Metamorphoses ." 

This play is an exquisite allegory, in which the poem of the Venus 
and Adonis is figured asa " hunting." Aaron, the Moor, burying the 
pot of gold, symbolizes the irony which concealed a sublime ideal of 
the author's conception — a poetical allegory — under the outward form 
of Ovid's mythology. Lavinia represents Bacon's Muse, and the loss 
of her arms and tongue signifies its crippling by the fact, that, in per- 
mitting the publication of the Venus and Adonis with the construction 
it must receive, he had rendered it impracticable for him, in consist- 
ency with his personal respect, to issue his future poetical compositions 
in his own name, since this must attach to him that authorship also. 
It does not come within the compass of my present design — this being 
as concisely as possible to prove Bacon s title in the plays — to open this 
allegory. Thus much is, however, explanatory of the primary reason 
for the relinquishment of the fame to Shakespeare, and for that reason 
I have introduced it. And, as evincing Bacon's judgment of his own 
case, it may also be well that I should exhibit to you the Cipher of the 
two dramas, Measure for Measure, and the Comedy of Errors. 



19 



MEASURE FOR MEASURE, 



Me assure for measure. 
Measure for me assure. 
May assure for measure. 
Measure for may assure. 
My azure for measure. 
Measure for my azure. 



Table of Invention as Key to Measure for Measure. 

VENICE : The poem of Venus and Adonis. 

VINCENTIO : 

Come censure you, oh! 



VINCENTIO : \ Bacon's judgment of his own case. 



Angel, oh! 



1 



ESCALUS : I The justice of Heaven. 
jEschylus. f 

CLAUDIO : ) Bacon's name in the plays. 
See laud you, oh ! \ 

LUCIO : | Rash volubility. 

Loose you, oh. \ 

FATHER THOMAS: -, Prflvpr 
To Mass. ^ rayer 

Y and 
FATHER PETER : I „ . . 
Repeater. J Petition. 

VARRIUS : j A supernumerary introduced for variety on the stage. 



As distinguished. 



Vary us. 

LLA:) 
I, ah! j" 



ISABELLA : ) Bacon's virtuous manhood. 
Is a bell, 



JULIET : ) The play of Romeo and Juliet. 
You'll yet. \ 

MARIANA : I The " Ariel " of The Tempest. 
Marry an A. \ 



1 



FRANCISCA : j The call of Francis Bacon. 
Francis"' call. 



Shall Bacon's personality be impeached in the outside rendering of 
the early poems, by his acknowledgment of the dramas, and shall he 
save his name in the latter at the expense of his manhood's honor ? The 
clear-cut delicacy of soul that would give up that dearest to it except 
itself rather than be attainted in the temple of its own sanctity — this is 
the exquisite allegory of Measure for Measure. When we consider, 



20 

too, the value of this man's virtuous character, not only in his own day, 
but as an example for all time, thus come to light, we may better place 
at its noble worth the rounded " judgment," which confirmed this 
sacrifice of the homage due to his genius, on the instance of his unsul- 
lied angel. This is the author's own most valued play, as I find by the 
Cipher. 

The Cipher of the Comedy of Errors is similar. I subjoin it next: 



COMEDY OF ERRORS. 



Come, d'y've errors ? 
Come, d'ye half air us ? 
Come, d'ye aver us ? 
Come to ye off far, us. 
Come to ye of air us ! 



Table of Invention, or Key to Comedy of Errors. 



SOLINUS:[ Justice. 
Soul in us. 



S 1 
\ 



^EGEON : ) Incitement. 
Egg you on, 

ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus : | Bacon's future fame of the plays in 

England's title fall us, of Epithet Jesus. \ England. 

ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse: / Bacon's life-time fame of the plays in 

England's title fall us, of Sir Accused. ) England. 

DROMIO of Ephksus : ) Motives for Bacon's future fame in the 

Drum you oh, of Epithet Jesus. f plays. 

DROMIO of Syracuse : ) Motives against Bacon's life-time fame in the 
Drum you oh, of Sir Accused. J plays. 

ANGELO : ) Bacon's divine soul. 
Angel, oh! J 

/EMILIA : ) A rest. 
I mile you. j 

ADRIAN A: ) Shame.* 
Ah, try on A. j 

LUCIANA: } Patience. 

LUCE : I Voluble complaint. 
Loose. 



Lose you on, ah! 

\ 



* Notr. — For we form a history, and tables of invention for anger, fear, 
shame, and the like. — Novum Organum. 



21 

Having now, gentlemen, by complete process of logic proven Lord 
Verulam's title in the dramas, under his own Cipher introduced into 
them, and connected with the Cipher in his prose writings pointing to 
it, and having proven under his own hand his arrangement of a clue 
outside of the plays, connected with their Cipher, in the volume of 
Florio's Montaigne, preserved and transmitted in the British Museum, 
I shall now proceed under his hand to nullify Shakespeare's claim. Be 
kind enough, therefore, to accompany me into the Cipher of The Mer- 
chant of Venice, as the next reference in sequence: 



MERCHANT OF VENICE. 



Mar chant of Venus. 
Merry chant of vine use.* 
More chant to win us. 

Table of Invention as Key to the Merchant of Venice. 

ALEPPO: { The clef of the cipher, O. 
A lip O. ) 

0: Oracle, a word depending on O, namely Othello. 

DUKE OF VENICE: Justice. 

DUKE OF MOROCCO: Attainments. 

DUKE OF ARRAGON : Desert. 

ANTONIO: ) Bacon's future fame sounded by means of the cipher in Othello. 
Intone you, O. \ 

BASSIANO: ) Bacon's fame in his own day, as it shall appear by means of 
Bass you on O. \ the Cipher in Othello. 

SALANIO: ) The Sense of the Dramas as this shall appear, through the 
Sail on you, O. j" Cipher in Othello. 

SALARINO:) The Soul of the Dramas as this shall be disclosed, by means 
Sail her in O. \ of the Cipher in Othello. 

GRATIANO: ) The Cipher of Othello the bar of the discovery. 
Grate you on O. j 

LORENZO:/ The discovery shall end the need of the Cipher of Othello. 
Lore endsO. f 



LOCK : | 
;n lock, j 



SHYLOCK : | The Cipher in the plays. 
Hiddet " 



* Note. — This catch refers to the Merry Wives of Windsor; the author's 
^>wn satire on the Venus and Adonis, as literally taken. 



22 

TUBAL : I Rumour of the discovery of Bacon's authorship. 

Trumpet of the jubilee, f 

LAUNCELOT GOBBO: ) The Cipher of the play of Othello shall launch all 
Launch the lot Gob,* O. \ the dramas on their way to the discovery. 

LEONARDO: ) Bacon's lion-heart will appear by the Cipher in Othello. 
Lion heart, O. \ 

STEPHANO: ) A reference to a name ending in O in another play, as a re- 
Step on O. \ lated clue. 

BALTHAZAR: { Occult writing. 
Belteshazzar t 

PORTIA: 'I The Series of Dramas. 
Carry you, A. \ 

JESSICA: ) The play of Othello itself. 
Yes, sick, ah. \ 

NERISSA: ) The discovery approaches. 
Is a near, f 

We have brought over from the De Augmentis the Cipher Cicero, 
See Sir O; and, from the Othello, Aleppo, A lip 0. We now find lhat 
to which they point in Act I, Scene I, of this play: 

"As who should say, ' I am Sir Oracle.' " 

This gives us the letter O as the clef of the Cipher in the dramas, 
signifying the play of Othello as beginning with that letter, while the 
word " Oracle " implies that we shall also find our Oracle in that play, 
for the foundation of this revelation. 

All the proper names in these plays proving to be in Cipher, our 
attention is next attracted by the word Belmont .- Bell mont. This is an 
intimation that we are to ring the changes upon the root Mont. In 
doing so we get Montague and Montaigne, both as connected with these 
plays. 

Immediately, in Scene II of the same Act, we find Nerissa dis- 
coursing to her mistress of the different lovers who had come as wooers 
to this lady under the conditions of her father's will, and Portia says 
to her: 

" Por. I pray thee, over-name them ; and, as thou namest them, 
I will describe them." 

Nerissa then returns: 

" Ner. First, there is the Neopolitan prince." 

We know this as a reference to the play of Romeo and Juliet, fit- 

* Note. Gob, an obsolete word for a small collection. 

+ Note. See Book of Daniel, in Old Testament. • 



23 

ting to Romeo the name of Montague (mont A, cue) still ringing in 
our ears, and apply the beautiful language of the balony-scene : 

" Jul. O Romeo, Romeo ! wherefore art thou Romeo? 
Deny thy father, and refuse thy name : 
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn by love, 
And I'll no longer be a Capulet {let your cap). 

" Rom. Shall I hear no more, or shall I speak at this ? (Aside.) 

' ' Jul. ' Tis but thy name, that is my enemy; — 

Thou art thyself, but not a Montague (mont A cue). 
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, 
Nor arm, nor jace, nor any other part 
Belonging to a man. O BE some other name ! 
What's in a name ? that zvhich we call a rose, 
' By any other name would smell as sweet; 
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, 
Retain that dear perfection which he owes, 
Without that title: — Romeo, doff thy name: 
And for that name, which is no part of thee, 
Take all myself. 

(l Rom. I take thee at thy word: 

Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized: 
Henceforth I never will be Romeo. 

li Jul. What man art thou, that, thus bescreen'd in night, 
So stumblest on my counsel ? 

" Rom. By a name, 

I know not hozv to tell thee who I am: 
My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, 
Because it is an enemy to thee; 
Had I it written, I would tear the word. 

" Jul. My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words 

Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound: 
Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague ? 

"Rom. Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike." 

Portia having given her reasons for rejecting this suitor, Nerissa 
says, in what is intended by the Cipher as another allusion to the same 
play, filled throughout with the most fruitful analogies bearing on the 
repudiated title in the plays: 

" Ner. Then there is the County Palatine.''' 

The reference is to that portion of the play where the County Paris 
has become the wooer of Juliet. The following, spoken by a servant 
to the musicians who have come to play in celebration of Paris's ex- 
pected wedding, and the reply of one of these, are especially in point : 

" Peter. I will carry no crotchets; I'll re you; do you note me? 

" Muc. And re us, and fa us, you note us? 

Here we have re, brought over from the Cipher in the De Aug- 
ments , with the significant inquiry and reply as to our making a " note " 



24 

of it. The connection of the one instance with the other is self- 
evident. 

Portia disparages this suitor in the same way, and Nerissa continues: 

" Ner. . How say you to the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon ? " 

By this name we are referred to the play of As You Like It, in 
which Le Beau is one of the characters. The whole play contains, in 
the Cipher, much that is pertinent to Bacon's disguise as the true author 
of these plays; but I select from it the following, as dispossessing 
Shakespeare, and as showing the true quality of that worthy, whom the 
world has exalted as an idol: 

" Touch. But, Audrey,* there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to you." 

" Aud. Ay, [ know who 'tis, he hath no interest in me in the zuorld: here 
comes the man you mean. 

Enter William. 

" Touch. It is meat and drink for me to see a clown: By my troth, we 
that have good wits have much to answer for; we shall be 
flouting; we cannot hold. 

" Will. Good evening, Audrey. • 

" Aud. God ye good even, William. 

" Will. And good even to you, sir. 

" Touch. Good even, gentle friend: Cover thy head, cover thy head: nay, 
pr'ythee, be covered. How old are you, friend ? 

" Will. Five and twenty, sir. 

" Touch. A ripe age : Is thy name William ? 

" Will. William, sir. 

" Touch. A fair name : Wast born i' the forest here ?" 

" Will. Ay, sir, I thank God. 

" Touch. Thank God — a good answer : Art rich ? 

" Will. 'Faith, sir, so, so. 

" Touch. So, so, is good, very good, very excellent good: — and yet it is not, 
it is so, so. Art thou wise ? 

" Will. Ay, sir, I have pretty wit. 

" Touch. Why, thou say'st well. I do now remember a saying, — "The 
fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself 
to be a fool.' The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire 
to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his 
mouth; meaning thereby, that grapes were made to eat, and 
lips to open. You do love this maid ? 

* Note. — Audrey, in the Cipher : Hear all ye. 



25 



" Will. 1 do, sir. 

" Touch. Give me your hand : Art thou learned ? 

" Will. No, sir. 

" Touch. Then learn this of me : To have, is to have : For it is a figure 
in rhetoric, that drink, being poured out of a cup into a glass, 
by filling the one doth empty the other : For all your writers 
do consent, that ipse is he ; now, you are not ipse, for i 

AM HE. 

" Will. Which he, sir. 

" Touch. He, sir, that must marry this woman : Therefore, you clown, 
abandon — which is in the vulgar, leave — the society — which 
in the boorish is*, company — of this female, — which in the 
common is, woman, — which together is, abandon the society 
of this female J 1 or, clown, thou perishest ; or, to thy better 
understanding, diest ; to wit : / kill thee, make thee away, 
translate thy life into death, thy liberty into bondage ; 1 will 
deal in poison with thee, or in bastinado, or in steel ; 1 will 
bandy with thee in faction; I will overrun thee with policy; 
I will kill thee a hundred and fifty ways; therefore tremole 
and depart. 



Aud. Do, good William. 



[Exit. 



asks: 



Portia responds with her reasons as before, when Nerissa next 

" Ner. What say you then to Falconbridge, the young Baron of Eng- 
land ?" 

This is a reference to the play of King John, in which Philip Faul- 
conbridge is one of the personages. I append the passage: 

" K. J. Why, what a mad-cap hath heaven sent us here ?' ? 

" Eliz. He hath a trick of Cceur de Leon's face, 
The accent of his tongue affecteth him : 
Do you not read some tokens of my son 
In the large composition of this man ? 

" K. J. Mine eye hath will exajnined his parts. 

A ndfind them perfect Richard ( rich heart. ) 

# * * . *• * * * 

" Eli. Whether hadstthou rather, — be a Faulconbridge( fall with bridge), 
And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land ; 
Or the reputed son of Cceur-de-lion, 
Lord of thy presence, and no land beside ? 

" Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, 
And I had his, Sir Robert's his, like him : 
And if my legs were two such riding rods, 
My arms such eel-skins stuffed ; ?ny face so thin, 
That in my ear I durst not stick a rose, 
Lent men should say, Look, there three-farthings goes I 
A nd, to his shape, zuere heir to all this land, 
Would I might nerer stir from off this place, 
I ''d give it every foot to have this face; 
I would not be Sir Nob in any case. 



26 

" Eli. I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, 

Bequeath thy land to him and follow me ? 
I am a soldier, and now bound to France (far hence.} 

"Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance: 
Your face hath got five hundred pounds a-year ; 
Yet sell your face for five-pence, and 'tis dear. — 
Madam, I'll follow you unto the death. 

" Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither. 

"Bast. Our country manners give our betters way. 

" K. J. What is thy name ? 

" Bast. Philip, my liege, so is my name begun ; 

Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son. 

" K. J. From henceforth bear his name whose form thoit bear ' st. 
Kneel thou down Philip, but arise more great; 
Arise Sir Richard, and Plantagenet {plant age in it.) " 

Portia returns that she has found him too cosmopolitan for her 
taste, when Nerissa goes on : 

" Ner. What do you think of the Scottish lord, his neighbor?" 

Here we are referred to the play of King Henry V, Act IV, Sc. I. 
The scene is in the English Camp at Agincourt {age in course.} The 
king being at this point of the play alone, three soldiers enter to him. 
These are in the old editions styled, respectively, John Bates, Alexan- 
der Court and Michael Williams. Some of the later editions, with that 
atrocious tampering with these plays, both as to the author's studied 
method in their arrangement, and in changing the spelling, or in the 
omission of some proper names — which might well have had the effect 
of thus long retarding, or even of entirely preventing, the discovery of 
his Cipher — have omitted the Christian names of these soldiers. It is 
now seen that Michael, one of the names so omitted, is important here as 
a reference by the Cipher — the object being to connect the name Michael, 
already, by the Cipher of Othello joined in our minds to Montaigne, 
with Williams ( William S.J — suggesting, after the allusions to Shake- 
speare which we have just had in our references, the distinct remem- 
brance of his autograph in the Montaigne volume. This reference is 
introduced chiefly for the purpose of associating these names together 
in our minds; although the incident of King Henry's exchange of a 
gage with Williams, and the box on the ear received by the Welsh 
{double you well, his age) soldier, who had undertaken to stand the chal- 
lenge in the place of the king, has a pertinent double analogy indica- 
tive of the falsely reputed authorship of these plays, and of the ultimate 
discovery of the truth. 

Nerissa continues her inquiries: 

" Ner. How like you the young German, the Duke of .Saxony's nephew ?" 

We have an allusion here to the Merry Wives of Windsor ', indi- 



27 

cated by the fat knight Falstaff, who drank so deeply of sack, and we 
get the following from Act IV, Sc. I : 

' ' Mrs. Page. Sir Hugh, my husband's son profits nothing in the world 
at his book. I pray you ask him some questions in his accidence ? 

"Evans. Come hither, William; hold up your head: come. 

" Mrs. Page. Come on, sirrah: hold up your head ; answer your master, 
be not afraid. 

" Evans. William, how many numbers is in nouns ? 

" Will. Two. 

" Quick. Truly, I thought there had been one number more, because 

they say ' Od's nouns.' 

"Evans. Peace your tatlings ! What is 'fair,' William? 

" Will. Pulcher. 

"Evans. What is 'lapis,' William!" 

" Will. A stone, 

" Evans, And what is a 'stone,' William ? 

" Will. A pebble. 

" Evans. No, it is 'lapis;' I pray you remember your prain. 

" Will. Lapis. 

" Evans. That is a good William. What is he, William, that does 

lend articles ? 

" Will. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be thus declined : 

Singulariter, nomnativo, hie, haec, hoc. 

'■'■Evans. Nominativo, hig, hag, hog; pray you, mark, genitivo, hujus. 

Well, what is your accusative case? 

" Will. Accusativo, hinc. 

" Evans. I pray you have your remembrance, child; accusativo hung, 

hang, hog. 

" Quick. i Hang-hog' is Latin for Bacon, I warrant you." 

Readers of the little volume of wit styled Baconiana, will readily 
here recall now that Bacon is named in connection with the above, 
the anecdote, twice repeated there, of a countryman, who, being tried 
under Sir Nicholas (then a Circuit Judge), the father of Francis 
Bacon, claimed leniency on the score of relationship — his name being 
Hog, and therefore kin to Bacon — on which Sir Nicholas replied that 
" hang-hog is Latin for Bacon." In fact that whole collection of wit- 
ticisms was evidently dictated by Lord Verulam solely for the purpose 
of his identification in this play, by the introduction of the anecdote in 
question at this point of the proof, as including the very mention of his 
name. Introduced here in connection with " William, ".its humor is as 
supreme as its logic is irrefutable. The application needs no fitting 
at my hands. 

Nerissa has another of her mistress' suitors to prate of, and inquires 
concerning " Bassanio," that " came hither in company of the Marquis 



28 

of Mon/krraX " (ferret mont.) This suggestion to ''ferret mont," in 
connection with the title " Marquis," is another notice to our memory 
of the Marquis de Montaigne, in case we may have been still oblivious, 
in spite of all that has been previously invoked by the Cipher, to recall 
to our remembrance the volume of his works with the Shakspere auto- 
graph. But we are not, even here, done with the connection of the 
Cipher with this important clue. Later in the play, in the trial scene, 
in Gratiano's " A second Daniel! " thrice repeated, we are referred to 
the Book of Daniel in the Scriptures, where we find the following pas- 
sages : 

- Chap, io ; 13. But lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help 
vie.''' 

" Chap . 12 ; 1, 2, 3. At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince 
which standeth for the children of the people; and there shall be a time of • 
trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time; and at 
that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the 
book. 

" And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to 
everlasting life, and some to everlasting contempt. 

" And they which be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and 
as the stars, forever and ever ." 

Chapter V. of Daniel is also designed in this reference as signifi- 
cant in connection with the Cipher and allegory of the dramas, in 
alluding to one of " understanding and excellent wisdom, capable to 
make interpretations and dissolve doubts," and as reading the occult 
writing to the king. 

Accordingly, so does it go on, reference following reference, until 
the Cipher is opened up in all the dramas. And I would have you dis- 
tinctly to bear in mind that it is not I who am selecting these analogies 
as an optional line of argument, but that they have evolved in regular 
order of the author's arrangement, in the development of this revela- 
tion. 

In our procedure we have found that the Cipher has done for us 
the invaluable office of connecting Bacon with the plays, and of reveal- 
ing him as their author. But apart from this, as I have already said, 
it is but an incumbrance upon them ; I may say it is a superscription on 
them, merely, so to speak. To the divine allegory and idealism by 
which the dramatist's inner life and soul are too exquisitely portrayed 
for any but the perfectly kindred mind to apprehend, there is altogether 
another key — that of the mystery of the sonnets, only to be pierced by 
poetic assimilation, but yet having its credentials also included in the 
Cipher. 

Our author winds up the Cipher's work, therefore, by including 
the sonnets — as I shall presently show you, in Jhe Winter's Tale, in so 
far as to give the key, as below: 



29 



THE WINTER'S TALE 



The wind us tail. 
The win tears tale. 
The vent us tale. 
The venture's tail. 
The venturous tale. 
The wondrous tale. 

Wonders pale. 

Wonders fail. 

Table of Invention as Key to The Winter's Tale 

SICILIA: ) The sonnets.* 

So silly, ah! 
See, seal you A. 

BOHEMIA :t ) The Dramas. 

Boar hem you, ah!f 
Beau him, you A. ) 

LEONTES : j The creative genius invoked in the sonnets. 
Lie on 'tis 
Lion 'tis. 



S 



MAMILIUS : J The genius of the earlier sonnets. 
Mame ill you us. 
May mile you us. 

CAMILLO : ) The Cipher, based on O, at the same time an excresence and a 
Camel O. V series of layers pictured in relief. 

Cameo. ) 

ANT1GONUS : ) Bacon weighing the play of Antony and Cleopatra 

England's title gone us >- in the light of his future fame. 

England's title given us. J 

CLEOMENES:) Bacon's justification of his Cleopatra by the voice of the 
Clay o' mean is. >• divine oracle. 

Clef o' men is. ) 

DION : ) Sealed mystery of the secret, but on its way to discovery. 
Die on. 
Do you on. 

* Note. — The sonnet form of poem is of Sicilian origin. 

tNoTE. — " For that excellent lady, whose fortune is so distant from her 
merits and virtue, the Queen of Bohemia, your Grace being, as it were, the first 
born, or prime man of the king's creatures, must, in consequence, owe the most 
to his children and generations, whereof I know your noble heart hath far greater 
sense than any man's words can infuse into you And therefore, whatsoever 
liveth within the compass of your duty, will no doubt spring to you out of that 
fountain." — From letter of Bacons, addressed in the Cipher to the Duke of Buck- 
ingham. 



30 



POLIXENES : 

Cross (x) writing in us. 
Polished scenes. 



FLORIZEL: 
Florio I sell. 
Florio I zeal. 



The outward impropriety, but inward beauty of 
"£- } many scenes in the dramas. 



{ 



The double use of the Florio volume. 



ARCHIDAMUS 
Ark I damn us. 
Ark-hid am us. 



The secret of the authorship. 



HERMOINE : ) The volume of dramas. 
Her, my own. 
Her, my one. 

PERDITA : ] The reprobated play of Antony and Cleopatra, saved by word 
Perdition, ah! \ "Ariel." 

Per word, A. 

PAULINA :) Bacon's burialof fame, and confidence of recovery in " Ariel." 
Pall in A. 
Pull in A. 

EMILIA : ) Bacon's pain in present time, but hope in the future. 
I'm ill you. 
I mile you. 

MOPSA : ) Hoping and wiping. 
My hope, sir. 
Mop so. 

DORCAS : 

Sleep casket. 
Door casement. 



The secret to be opened. 



AUTOLYCUS : ) William Shakespeare. 
Author like us. 
Author lick us. 

SHEPHERD : The law, as protecting Bacon's title in the plays. 

The Winter's Tale is a perfectly sustained allegory of Bacon's secret 
authorship, and self-provided restitution, by means of the Cipher and 
Sonnets. It also contains the intimation of the author's scruples as to 
the admission of the play of Antony and Cleopatra in the folio collec- 
tion, and explains that not to do so might give "scandal" to the son- 
nets — of which Cleopatra is the dark lady, concerning whose identity 
there has been so much conjecture. I shall only dwell upon this play 
to make the following quotations, showing the quality of William 
Shakespeare, who is represented in it under the character of Autolycus: 

" Aui. Ha, ha ! what a fool Honesty is! and Trust his sworn brother, a 

very simple gentleman ! I have sold all my trumpery; not a counterfeit stone, 
nor a riband, glass, pomander, brooch, table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, 
shoe-tie, bracelet, horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting: they throng who 
should buy first; as it* my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction 
to the buyer; by which means I saw whose purse was best in picture; and, what 
I saw, to my good use, I remembered. My clown (who wants but something to 



31 

be a reasonable man) grew so in love with the wenches' song, that he would not 
stir his petitoes, till he had both tune and words;" 



" Cam. How now, good fellow ? why shakest thou so ? 

Fear not man; here's no harm intended to thee. 

" Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir. 

"Cam. Why, be so still; here's nobody will steal that from thee: 

Yet, for the outside of thy poverty, we must make an exchange : therefore, dis- 
ease thee instantly, (thou must think there's necessity in't.) and change garments 
with this gentleman: Though the pennyworth, on his side, be the worst, yet 
hold thee, there's some boot. 

" Aut. I am a poor fellow, sir. — I know thee well enough. {Aside.) 

"Cam. Nay, pr'y thee, despatch: the gentleman is half flayed already. 

" Aut. Are you in earnest, sir. — I smell the trick of it. {Aside.) 

" Flo. Despatch, I pr'y thee. 

"Aut. Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience 

take it. 

" Cam. Unbuckle, unbuckle. — 

{Flo. and Aut ol. exchange garments.) 

Fortunate mistress — let my prophecy 
Come home to you! — you must retire yourself 
Into some covert; take your sweetheart's hat, 
And pluck it o'er your brows; muffle your face; 
Dismantle you; and as you can, disliken 
The truth of your own seeming; that you may 
(For I do fear eyes over you) to shipboard 
Get undescribed. 

" Per. I see the play so lies, 

That I must bear a part. 

" Cam. No remedy. — 

# * * * * * *■ 

"Aut, I understand the business, I hear it: To have an open ear, 

a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse ; a good nose is re- 
quisite also, to smell out work for the other senses. I see this is the time that 
the unjust man doth thrive. What an exchange had this been, without boot! 
what a boot is here, with this exchange! Sure, the gods do this year connive at 
us, and we may do anything extempore. The prince himself is about a piece of 
iniquity, stealing away from his father, with his clog at his heels. If I thought 
it were not a piece of honesty to acquaint the king withal, I would do't; I hold it 
the more knavery to conceal it: and therein am I constant to my profession. 

Enter Clown and Shepherd. 

Aside, aside; — here is more matter for a hot brain: every lane's end, every shop, 
church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work. 

" Clo. See, see; what a man you are now! there is no other way, 

but to tell the king she's a changeling, and none of your flesh and blood. 

" Shep. Nav, but hear me. 



32 

" Clo. Nay, but hear me. 

" Shep. Go, to then. 

" Clo. She being none of your flesh and blood, your flesh and blood 

has not offended the king, and so your flesh and blood is not to be punished by 
him." 

Shakespeare was not connected with the Law, and therefore he 
was not " flesh and blood " of the Shepherd. 

" Shep. Well, let us to the king; there is that in this fardel, will 

make him scratch his beard. 

" Aut. I know not what impediment this complaint may be to the 

flight of my master. 

" Clo. 'Pray heartily he be at palace. 

" Aut. Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by 

chance. Let me pocket up my pedler's excrement. (Takes off his false beard.) — 
How now, rustics ? whither are you bound ? 

"Shep. To the palace, an it like your worship. 

" Aut. Your affairs there ? what ? with whom ? the condition of that 

fardel, the place of your dwelling, your names, your ages, of what having, breed- 
ing, and anything that is fitting to be known, discover. 

" Clo. We are but plain fellows, sir. 

u Aut A lie : you are rough and hairy. Let me have no lying; it be- 

comes none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the lie; but we pay them 
for it by stamped coin, not stabbing steel; therefore they do not give us the lie. 

" Clo. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not 

taken yourself with the manner. 

" Shep. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir ? 

" Aut. Whether it like me or no, I am a courtier. See'st thou not 

the air of the court in these enfoldings ? hath not my gait in it the measure of the 
court ? receives not thy nose court odor from me ? reflect I not on thy baseness 
court-contempt ? Think'st thou, for that I insinuate, or toze from thee thy busi- 
ness, I am therefore no courtier ? I am courtier, cap-a-pe; and one that will 
either push on, or pluck back thy business there: whereupon 1 command thee to 
open thy affair. 

" Shep. My business, sir, is to the king. 

" Aut. What advocate hast thou to him ? 

"Shep. I Unow not, an't like you. 

" Clo. Advocate's the court- word for a pheasant; say you have none. 

"Shep. None, sir, I have no pheasant, cock nor hen. 

"Aut. How bless'd are we that are not simple men ! 

Yet nature might have made me as these are, 
Therefore I'll not disdain. 

" Clo. This cannot be but a great courtier. 



33 

" Shep. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely. 

" Clo. He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical; a great 

man, I'll warrant, I know by the picking on's teeth. 

" Aut. The fardel there ? what's i' the fardel ? Wherefore that box ? 

" Shep. Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel, and box, which none 

must know but the king. 

* * * * * * 71 

" Clo. Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, ain't like you, sir? 

"Aut. He has a son, who shall be flayed alive; then 'nointed over 

with honey, set on the head of a wasp's nest; then stand, till he be three-quarters 
and a dram dead; then recovered again with aquavitae, or some other hot infu- 
sion; then, raw as he is, and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall he 
be set against a brick wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon him, 
where he is to behold him with flies blown to death. But what talk we of these 
traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be smiled at, their offences being so capi- 
tal? Tell me, (for you seem to be honest, plain men,) what you have to the 
king; being something gently considered, I'll bring you where he is aboard, ten- 
der your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalf; and, if it be in 
man, besides the king, to effect your suits, here is man shall do it. 

" Clo. He seems to be of great authority; close with him, give him 

gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with 
gold; shew the inside of your purse to the outside of his hand, and no more ado: 
Kemember stoned and flayed alive. 

" Shep. An't please you, sir, to undertake the business for us, here is 

that gold I have: I'll make it as much more; and leave this young man in pawn 
till I bring it you. 

•' Aut. After I have done what I promised. 

"Shep. Ay, sir. 

" Aut. Well, give me the moiety. — Are you a party in this business ? 

" Clo. In some sort, sir; but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope 

I shall not be flayed out of it. 

" Aid. O, that's the case of the shepherd's son: Hang him, he'll be 

made an example. 

" Clo. Comfort, good comfort. We must to the king and shew our 

strange sights; he must know, 'tis none of your daughter nor my sister; we are 
gone else. — Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the business 
is performed; and remain, as he says, your pawn, till it be brought you. 

"Aut. I will trust you. Walk before toward the seaside; go on the 

right hand; I will but look upon the hedge and follow you. 

" Clo. We are blessed in this man, as I may say, even blessed. 

" Shep. Let's before, as he bids us: he was provided to do us good. 

[Exunt Shepherd and Clown.) 

" Aut. If I had a mind to be honest, I see, fortune would not suffer 

me; she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occasion, 
gold, and a means to do the prince my master good; which, who knows how 
that may turn back to my advancement? I will bring these two moles, these 
blind ones aboard him; if he thinks it fit to shore them again, and that the com- 
plaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me, rogue, for 
being so far officious; for 1 am proof against that title, and what shame else be- 
longs to it: To him will I present them, there may be matter in it." 



34 

The proof of Lord Verulam's authorship of the dramas is now com- 
plete here, gentlemen, under his own hand. He has acquainted us 
with his private Cipher in the De Augment is ; has directed us to the 
volume of the dramas; by means of the name " Ariel" in the sacred 
Scriptures ■, he has signified to us that it was a sealed book, to which his 
Cipher is the key, and has given us the letter O to bring over into this 
volume of dramas, whereby we have been directed to an " oracle" in 
the Cipher of the Othello, beginning with that initial letter. In this 
play he has shown us himself connected with the Shakspere-Florio- 
Montaigne volume preserved in the British Museum — a work contain- 
ing instances of relinquishment of fame from noble motives — thereby 
indicating to us the cause of his secrecy in this authorship; has re-as- 
serted finally his own title, and has dispossessed Shakespeare with good- 
humored ridicule. The logical proof is absolutely without a flaw. Nay, 
if there be any cavillers yet, they have even mathematical proof, in the 
" Table of Invention" of The Winter's Tale above, for he has shown us 
the problem demonstrated, that x=z; thereby, too, explaining what 
has long been a puzzle to critics, why Michael Cassio is styed " a great 
Arithmetician." If this be a joke, it is a sapient one, at least. It is 
intended to show that other roads to the truth may be as infallible as 
that of mathematics. 

In a word, it will be found, that, being carefully developed on the 
systematic plan devised by the far-seeing Bacon as the objective proof 
requisite for the establishment of his authorship of the dramas, in the 
ripeness of time, the evidence I have here given is absolute. 

•It will, further, appear tha*t this discovery was imperative for the ob- 
ject and purpose of these dramas — nay, that it was inclusive in the 
Book itself, to attest it by miracle, in the light of its noblest and immor- 
tal use. 

I need not say to you, gentlemen, that this- stupendous tome has 
already, under its fictitious authorship, been received as the digest of 
all science, ethics, polity, philosophy and imaginative grace. It has 
also been clasped to the heart as the expression of all living sentiments 
and emotions. But the world has, nevertheless, now to find that it has 
never hitherto been read at all, and that its commentators have, in their 
well meant zeal, but heaped upon it agglomerated fallacies. It has 
remained for this opening of the seals to exhibit its ulterio'r glories. It 
shall now be revealed as the gorgeously framed casket wrought about 
itself by the priceless jewel within, for its safe conduct to an appreci- 
ative posterity. For it shall appear that, hidden within the great vol- 
ume of dramas for two centuries and a half, there has been lying an 
ineffable human soul, born too soon out of the ages, and awaiting the 
ripeness of time which should at last permit it to look out, eye to eye, 
upon a generation containing some mutual souls capable of recogniz- 
ing its adorable likeness. In a word, it will now be seen that this Book 
of all books, saving the ONE only more divine, has been handed 






35 

down by the author in an occult manner to this day and generation, in 
which it is now first opened, and through these to all future times and 
generations, for an example <?/" character, as this may be manifested in 
motives and ends, by discipline of the will and judgment in the choice 
of conduct, and as, hence, under due provision, including an everlast- 
ing effect. That it should even be competent to rise up supernaturally 
from the grave, not only of oblivion, but of obloquy, after the lapse of 
centuries, and to win back in ultimate compensation all mankind's 
tribute of honor and affection — proving the immutable relationship 
between virtue and justice — this was included in the legacy. For 
surely, now that it shall be made clear to the British nation that their 
fellow-countryman, the greatest man of all time, voluntarily deprived 
himself of his title in these transcendent dramas, from the loftiest personal 
motives, as inclusive of motives of patriotism and philanthropy; that he 
accepted a false reputation of hollowness and coldness for the sake of 
maintaining his self-imposed sacrifice and its secret, even permitting 
this injurious reputation to follow him to the grave, and libelously to 
stain the pages of his historians and biographers; and, if it shall be 
seen that he did all this, trusting to the great law of eternal justice, in 
the record of these disowned plays, ultimately to restore to him not 
alone his proper fame in them, but the higher fame of his all-beauteous 
manhood, which they should gloriously reveal — it cannot be that Eng- 
lish hearts will longer withhold his meed, but rather they must one and 
all leap to crown him with his severed honors, mingling their tears the 
while with the tribute too long delayed. For it is not fame, commonly 
so called, that Bacon desired and anticipated from a late posterity. It 
is that sympathetic appreciation and love denied him by his own ?ge, 
that he looked to prophetically for his memory in the far distant future, 
as he embalmed his divine soul — its gentle and tender graces, and its 
torrent of outwardly repressed emotions — in the volume of the dramas. 
Above all the logical proof of his hand in them which he has given, 
addressing itself to the reason, and demanding his title, is the superior 
appeal to the affections; and it will be more by the heart than by the 
head, after all, that he shall be unanimously reinstated in name, in all 
his surpassing dignities, and The Great Inslallalio?i of his prophetic 
vision take place. 

I have already hinted my belief that the marvellous psychological 
phenomenon of his future recognition by another mind was pre-con- 
ceived by Lord Verulam as a part of the value to the world of his 
anticipated resurrection. It stamps the volume with the miracle of 
prophecy and fulfilment, arising preternaturally to confound a material- 
istic age with a signal token of the mystery of spirit, and fairly proves 
what his own Hamlet says: 

" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamed of in your philosophy." 

For myself, it were stupid and soulless in me not to have felt, in 
this revelation, as it has come to me, a direction and inspiration some- 



36 



thing more than merely natural — a mysterious intercommunication 
with the spirit of this first of all the departed, as still existent, apart 
from, no less than in the immortal work, in which it has been mine, 
as the favored human agent, to recover him to the world. Indeed, I 
am satisfied that it was to this very period of my discovery, that the 
author's far-seeing faith was borne in prophetic vision beyond the lim- 
its of the clay, when he wrote the lines: 

" There is something in this more than natural, 
If philosophy could find it out." 

That he then felt the anticipative assurance of his future conscious 
blending beyond the flesh with the miracle it was his life-work to pre- 
pare for this day and generation — his soul's resurrection and second 
advent — I am as fully convinced, as I am forced to believe that he has 
been consciously associated with my mind as the agency of its fulfil- 
ment. 

Neither is this Cipher — so remarkable bpth for its facility and its 
simplicity — only worthy to be thrown aside, apart from its use as a- key 
to these plays. It remains as a startling exemplification in philological 
science. The singular and various adaptations of words, both in their 
correspondence and antithesis, and especially of historical names, to 
the author's individual and incidental purpose, presents an analysis 
of the radical analogies' of language as the medium of mental com- 
parison. It also exhibits the English language at its acme, as being 
the absolutely perfected lingual form for the expression of all human 
relations. In all this demigod's various departments of greatness, 
there is not one of them in which he seems to me greater than in 
this vocabulary of his invention. He takes a word or sentence, and 
turns these over and over by the education of the ear, completely 
exhausting them of all their contents of thought, in every possible form 
of analogy, until their use as the symbol of mind is lost in the synthesis 
of mind itself. 

The worth of this discovery to the world is farther reaching still. 
With the new research into, and very different understanding of the 
dramas which it shall inspire, a revival also of the study of Bacon's 
prose works must occur, by which I am persuaded that their conserva- 
tive tendency must opportunely address itself to society, in this epoch 
of civil disorder. It is my belief that the philosophy of Bacon, re- 
garded as it has heretofore been, apart from its application to the social 
and political systems, as these are exemplified in the living examples 
of the dramas, has never been realized as to its practical value. I am 
of the opinion, myself, that Bacon's dramas, as the complement of his 
philosophy, must inaugurate a polity tending to the conservation of 
governments, and of a now threatened civilization. His teleology also 
awaits a more capable apprehension than it has as yet met at the hands 
of expositors; and, if prominently brought forward, it might, under 
the sanction of its great authority, turn back the tide of atheism now 



37 

chilling the pulse of the a^e, and bidding fair to petrify the heart of 
society. 

In conclusion, gentlemen, I most respectfully pray your assistance 
and co-operation in furtherance of my desire to open up to the full the 
discovery I have made, so as to enable me to place an edition of these 
dramas, with the title of Ariel, and with Lord Verulam's name, and 
The Great Installation, on the title-page, accompanied with pref- 
atory notes of mine, in explanation, before the world ere I shall be 
called to leave it. The opening of the cipher, even if completed 
through all the plays, is but the initiative of the full task committed to 
me. It is only designed for the objective proof of Bacon's author- 
ship. The true key to the personal allegory of the author contained 
in the dramas is the pierced mystery of the sonnets. I feel the deep- 
est responsibility resting on me to fulfil perfectly this duty, devolved 
on me from the unseen realm; more especially, as I realize that, if 
left to another, the true exposition will never be made. I need not inform 
you that my reading after the secret mind of this great author, is a 
comprehensive achievement of all the mental faculties constituting the 
mirror of itself. What the entire literary ability of the world has 
failed in, I have by absolute sympathy, in a spirit of perfect simplicity 
and humility, accomplished. 

I desire, also, to edit an edition of Lord Verulam's prose works; 
most particularly his letters, nearly all of which, I have discovered, are in 
masquerade. In this undertaking, likewise, I would crave your assist- 
ance. There is much suggested by this discovery to solicit investiga- 
tion touching the earliest appearance of Lord Verulam's published let- 
ters, after his death. Concerning a correspondence purporting to have 
been written from twenty-five to thirty years subsequently to his demise, 
between Dr. Rawley and Mr. Isaac Gruter, much curiosity and investi- 
gation might well now be invited — these names and the letters being in 
Cipher, and, as it now becomes evident, having been penned by Bacon him- 
self. 1 append a portion of one of them, with the Cipher opened, for 
its bearing on the authorship of the dramas: 

To the Most Reverend and Learned Willia?n Rawley D. D. * 

(Must reverence and learn it; William rawlie, dead he. 
Must revere end and lore in't; William rare lie, deed ye.) 

Mister Isaac Gruter, wisheth much health. 
(Mystery; sack, root her ; 

Mysteries accrue t'her; Hague May 29, 1852. 

May stir, Isaiah grew t'her; (ague; 
Must stir, I say A. grew t'her; hack you; 
My story is A, I grew t'her; age you; 
My story is I, I grew t'her; egg you; 
Mist air is A., I grew t'her; ha! gee you; 
Mist air is I, ay, grew t'her!) a cue!) 

* Note. — This letter purports to be a translation from the Latin, but that 
such can not have been the case, is palpable, from the adaptation of the English 
to the rendering of the Cipher. 



38 

Reverend Sir: 

(Reverence Her) It is not just to complain of the slowness of your answer, 
(sloeness of your hand-swear) seeing that the difficulty of the passage in the sea- 
son in which you wrote (difficult tie of the past age in the seasoning which you 
rot), which was toward winter (wind her) might easily cause it to come no faster 
(no fester) ; seeing likewise there is so much to be found in it to gratify desire 
(Deus higher), and perhaps so much the more the longer it was ere (air) it came 
to my hand. And, although I had little to send back besides my thanks for the 
Little Index, yet that seemed to me of such moment that I could no 
longer suppress them; especially because I accounted it a crime) accented it as 
rhyme) to have suffered (suffering; air it) Mr. Smith (missed her myths), to 
have been without an answer (a hand- swear) ; Mr. Smith (may stir myths), my 
most kind friend (far end), and to whose care (cure) in my matters (mate hers) 
I owe all regard and affection, without diminution ('diminish you one — I 
minute you on) of that part in which Dr. Rawley (doctor rare lie) hath place 
(palace). So that the souls of us three, so thoroughly (on rough lie") agreeing, 
may be aptly (apt lie) said to have united in a ' triga.' "* 

The foregoing is an intimation of the mine of interest lying unex- 
plored and to be worked in Bacon's correspondence and other prose 
productions, no less than in the dramas. 

Furthermore, gentlemen, I crave your assistance for my legal protec- 
tion in this discovery, by procurance for me of letters patent for it, or in 
such legal method as may secure to me the only right to open Lord 
Verulam's Cipher through the press. I crave this, not for any emolu- 
ment which might or might not come to myself from it, but to prevent 
the works of Lord Verulam — either his dramas or his prose writings — 
from being tampered with by unsympathetic or uninspired minds. I 
would save them from the host of pettifoggers who shall immediately 
spring up, prepared afresh to darken knowledge, where they are skil- 
less and unsanctified to tread. 

For, it is ever himself, in phases of his individualism, that, taking his 
own being as the symbol of universal man, he personifies in all his 
various characterizations. Even his head, hands and feet, he endowed 
with mental faculties, by an analogy so perfect that the symbols have 
never been detected, although the Cipher reveals them now so clearly, 
that all must marvel that they failed to be immediately recognized. In 
the exquisite allegory of Cymbeline, he claims from Britain his triple- 
crown, at his posthumous awakening. 

In furtherance of the above-named objects, Gentlemen, I feel that 
it is most expedient for me to goto London as early as practicable; and, 
having laid the all-important case before you, I would respectfully solicit 

* Triga, a. three-headed flower : Bacon uses it as expressing his tri-part- 
ite unity, as the full-blown Man, Philosopher and Poet. As early as the date of 
the composition of Henry IV, we find him making this division of his nature: 

" The Archdeacon hath divided it 
Into those limits very equally; 
* * # # * 

And our indentures tri-partile are drawn." 



39 

your earliest encouragement and co-operation to this end, and thereafter 
to the other ends which I have named in relation to this discovery — es- 
pecially reminding you that life is short, and delays are dangerous in a 
matter of such vital moment. For I cannot think it is possible that 
Great Britain, who lends her institutions to the researches of foreign 
archaeology, and who is interested in the recent report of the uncoffin- 
ing of a mummied Rhamesis, can be careless of the resurrection of 
her own proud son — the greatest of all the dead, because absolutely 
undying — not exhumed, a dessicated horror, loatnsome to the eye, but 
a glorious human soul, embalmed in the beauty of divine affections, 
rising spontaneously, enclothed in majesty and loveliness, to become 
to her the genius of the favored day for which this re-advent was re- 
served, and to add a modern miracle to the record of Victorian history. 

But the call is one of honour, no less than of pride. It is incum- 
bent that the re-awakened spirit of Francis Bacon should receive that 
honorable restitution from his country which he has burst the tomb to 
demand, and that this period of his long expectation should crown his 
injured memory with its just awards. He makes sacred appeal to 
Britain out of the heart of the dramas, by the token of his sacrificial 
devotion in the safe transmission to her of this boon, left, as it is now 
seen, a legacy less to letters than to lives. Meet it is, therefore, that 
she should at once rise up in noble acclaim, to welcome back her 
falsely slain — so great in love and forgiveness that the tomb has 
perforce yielded him again to her to prove love's immortality — and do 
him tearful and holy tribute in the record-volume of his sorrows, wel- 
coming the light let in on it by this propitious revelation of himself in 
its hitherto unilluminated pages. 

Gentlemen, speaking with due respect, permit me to say to you, 
that this miracle cannot — nay, it must not be ignored; for, be assured, 
it will not subside, and it should, therefore, at once, in its newness and 
wonder, for its best effect, be graciously and gratefully welcomed and 
proclaimed. It is not too much for me to predict that Great Britain 
will one day virtually, if not literally, inscribe a new chronology from 
the resurrection and second advent of Francis Bacon, the flower of 
mankind — a human being supremely endowed, and perfectly devel- 
oped, rising to the power of godhood, and transcending the limits of 
his mortal span, as all too brief for one of such a mould, in patriotic- 
ally committing himself to misconception by personal sacrifice, to start 
anew out of history into second life, as a consecrated model, and a 
supernatural influence, in a standing miracle to the country of his 
devotion, and through her to all the nations of the world. 

For myself, whatever may be the reception given to this great 
labor of my love, I lay it in all humility on the shrine of the country 
to which it belongs, and of which I am a descendant, as the tribute of 



40 

my soul to Bacon's name, as her frontlet ornament, and to my Maker, 
above all, as my talent not buried in a napkin, but returned with ade- 
quate usury, in view of my last account. 

I have the honour to subscribe myself, 

Yours, with high respect, 

CATHARINE F. ASH MEAD WINDLE. 



Postscript. — There is an additional discovery of mine which I have 
deemed it expedient to reserve for a postscript to the present commu- 
nication. 

I have now, gentlemen of the British Museum, furthermore respect- 
fully to announce to you that Ihave undoubtedly traced Lord Verulam's 
hand and his Cipher in the Essays called Montaigne's ; and that, stupen- 
dous, from its skillful elaboration, as has been this literary deception, 
there cannot remain a vestige of denial, upon careful examination of 
the evidence, that (at least as to its habiliments) he is the author also of 
that remarkable volume. 

Connected as this work is with the " Shakespeare" dramas, the dis- 
covery, of course, tends to strengthen the proofs of their Baconian 
authorship — saving that a thing already proved needs no more, but, 
rather, with minds of real judgment, becomes injured by accumulated 
testimony. Hence it has been that I have excluded it from this argu- 
ment. The Bacon-Shakespeare authorship does not need the Bacon- 
Montaigne authorship for its attestation. 

But I would likewise request to be protected in this discovery by let- 
ters patent, as the opener in "Montaigne's" works of the Verulamian 
Cipher, of which I present the following specimen, in a Latin sentence 
from the biography of Montaigne: 

" Alter ab undecimo vix ceperat annus." 

Alter book ; undeceive; move his cipher at years ; 

which, means that the fiction of Montaigne's life is dated back falsely. 
To change the dates, simply, puts much of it in correspondence with 
Bacon's own history — excepting the period assigned to Montaigne's 
journey to Italy; an account, with correct dates, of Bacon's early tour, 
mingled with just sufficient of artifice to sustain the deception. The 
names of Montaigne's relatives, in his professed biography, are fabrica- 
tions merely of the Baconian Cipher, as their undue minuteness of de- 
scription may of itself sufficiently attest. His alleged burial in the 
church of the Feuillans (folio), and the pretended transcript of the Latin 
and Greek inscription purporting to have been placed on a monu- 
ment erected to his memory by his widow, Francises. Chassanea, are 
rich tokens of the fraud. C. F. A. W. 









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